.NET Rocks! CLI First with Kathleen Dollard
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Mar 5, 2026 Kathleen Dollard, experienced .NET engineer and former Microsoft contributor who helped build the .NET CLI. She argues CLIs should be the first interface you design. Short takes on POSIX conventions, OpenCLI and AI-friendly consistency. Talks System.CommandLine, Dragonfruit 2, scripting readability, deprecation strategies, and why CLI-first clarifies APIs and GUIs.
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Layoff Coincided With Cancer Diagnosis
- Kathleen recounts being laid off from Microsoft the same day she learned she probably had cancer.
- She describes it as a blessing in timing because facing both crises separately would have been overwhelming.
CLI As A Domain Specific Language
- Kathleen argues CLIs are DSLs that let you express intent in a constrained, consistent language.
- She compares a CLI to a sonnet: limited syntax but powerful semantics for domain-specific tasks.
CLIs As AI Integration Surface
- CLIs are increasingly critical because they provide an explicit, scriptable interface AIs can call without remote services.
- Kathleen highlights OpenCLI as a standard to make CLIs machine-consumable for agents.